Earthen berms, which are also known as dams or barriers, have been used, for example, to contain oil field fluids in a confined space in order to provide a safe space for spills to collect without freely flowing into the open. Berms are intended to reduce damage to the surrounding soil and environment, and may prevent unwanted chemicals or effluents from entering the eco system.
Desirably berms are inter-connectable from a plurality of smaller modules, so that they may be easily shipped and used and reused to construct temporary safe enclosures of various desired dimensions. Inter-connectable berms in the industry today are generally made by interconnecting plastic modules.
In the oil and gas industry, tanks storing drilling fluids or muds are generally surrounded by a spill containment berm to contain any accidental spills from the tanks. Each tank can typically store upwards of 600 barrels of liquid. According to industry standards, the berm must be sized to contain at least 110% of the volume of the largest tank. While sized to standards, existing plastic berms are generally not strong enough to contain a spill resulting from ruptures or complete collapses of such tanks, being limited to only a fraction of the liquid before overturning, collapsing or blowing out. Plastic berms of several feet in height and having dovetail joints can fail with as little as about 5″ of liquid in the contained area. Some plastic berms are hollow for receiving ballast water to improve performance, but even these do not meet the industry standards.
Inter-connectable berms also have inherent problems due to the gaps formed at the interconnecting points between panels. The physical gaps between panels of the berm are pathways for spills to the floor of the containment area.
Further, the height of a berm interferes with access to the contained area, resulting in the use of stiles and running hoses and pipes over the top.
There is a demonstrated need for module berms capable of meeting industry standards.